EVALUATION QUESTION2

EMILY GAHAME

The ancillary texts that we produced were a magazine advert and a digipak. Throughout the planning process of the production music video task, as a group we were always thinking of the ancillary tasks. We wanted to create consistency throughout all 3 parts, including the same theme and colour schemes. We also wanted to make sure we fitted in the general criteria and conventions that magazine adverts and digipak’s included. These would be things such as an enticing picture on the digipak and magazine advert, magazine ratings and links, digipak track list and panel pictures.

I know that these conventions are in relation to real music videos because they are present in Rihanna and Taylor Swift’s album covers. In Rhianna’s album cover it has been presented in a girly way due to the red/pink hair and the subtle make up. She is making direct eye contact to the audience, which would be appealing because it makes her seem very open and friendly. Her name and her album cover are stated on the front of the album, which are main conventions that are generally stated in this way.

Another ‘real’ artists album cover that presents generic pop genre conventions would be Taylor Swift. This album cover is very similar to Rihanna in ways of conventions. Taylor is giving direct eye contact; she would also be seen to be looking pretty. These are two conventions that Rihanna also demonstrates. The colour scheme that has been used is also quite casual and not too extravagant; this tends to look appealing to the eye. Both artists are very established and therefore are in a position to take risks with there advertising and marketing. However both these artists know that this layout and the conventions they use are typical to the pop genre and they know that I works. Jess and myself knew that these pop artists have a constantly growing fan group and a solid target audience that are very loyal to them. Due to this being the case we thought if we did the similar type of marketing then hopefully would entice our specific target audience and would be a success.

In terms of the digipak, we kept consistency through adding in some of the pictures that were actually used in the music video. This is included the kaleidoscope effect, and some of our cutaway shots. The purpose of our kaleidoscope was to obviously keep with the theme, it gave the main product an abstract feel, and therefore we wanted to incorporate it into out ancillary tasks. Due to our theme being based on the 17th century Marie Antoinette era, we wanted to give a sophisticated and artistic look. Seeing as though this is a unique look we had to keep unity throughout all three products, otherwise the audience would become confused of what our theme was.

As Rick Altman said, “genre is a blueprint, a formula that precedes, programmes and patterns industry production”. By using a blueprint it is known to minimize the risk by understanding what is currently popular and what is selling. Therefore in our music video we had to research and find out exactly what did sell to hopefully decrease the risk of our tasks not ending up as we expected. One way we decided we could find out what people wanted was by delving into specific target audiences and understanding that not everybody wants the same thing.

Maffesoli holds a theory that was very relevant in this part of planning. Michel Maffesoli said, “Urban tribes are micro groups of people who share common interests in urban areas. The members of these relatively small groups tend to have similar worldviews, dress styles and behavioural patterns. Their social interactions are largely informal and emotionally laden”. Jess and myself decided to look even close into these tribes; their music choices and what they would want from a music video would generally also be the same. The urban tribe that our music video, digipak and magazine advert was aimed at was RAH’s, townies and Indies. These types of tribes seem to cross over a little and are not as strict in the types of music they can listen to.

After using the kaleidoscope effect in our digipaks and a cutaway shot that was also present in our main production task we decided to take shots from our production task and change them. This enabled us to keep consistency, however could add a twist to them. For example, the picture that is stated on the bottom left of the digipak was taken during a filming session especially for the digipak. We quartered the photo and colour corrected it because it was taken in the studio with the aid of many lights. We then decided to add different effects to each of the section with the aid of Magic Bullet and Instagram, this added to the skill and variability of the shot. Even though this particular shot and original photo was not present in the music video, we thought it would suit better to the digipak because it coincides slightly with Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’.

In the pop genre the increased amount of close up shots, which are slightly seductive are very common, especially with artists such as Rihanna and Beyonce. Jess and myself wanted to follow through with this idea because this is the most common style for a digipak and also magazine advert. Artists generally in the highly established pop genre go for the close up and seductive pose, this entices the readers in and also subconsciously will conjure the readers to remember their faces. Consequently we went for a sophisticated pose, which related to the main task, this makes sure that the artist is represented in the same way as the main production. The artist needs to be represented in a similar way otherwise there will be no consistency, therefore the audience may get confused with the ideologies of the artist.

The magazine advert has a solid purpose for advertising the artist to their target audiences, therefore the layout and criteria needs to be fulfilled. We made sure the photo was the main eye attraction to entice the audience. The Artists name ‘Lorde’ is also a predominant feature on the magazine advert and digipak. We made the font a lot bigger than the rest of the text to make it stand out increasingly more than the rest of the text. We kept the style of font the same to keep consistency but did change some sizes and colours to add to variation.